Stop fighting the will of Douglas voters

Congratulations to the Nevada Supreme Court for its ruling on the building-permit limit, known as the Sustainable Growth Initiative, for Douglas County.

The most important sentence in the ruling: "After comparing the SGI to the master plan as a whole, we cannot say that as a matter of law the SGI is noncompliant to an extent that would require us to usurp the will of the people."

That's a phrase - the will of the people - Douglas County commissioners should take to heart. Instead of spending taxpayer dollars to fight the voters' wishes, they should be spending their time trying to figure out the best way to implement the 280-permit cap called for in SGI.

The suggestion raised from time to time that "voters didn't know what they were doing" in 2002 is balderdash. They knew exactly what they were doing. Most of them own a piece of one of the most beautiful counties in Nevada, and they don't want to see it overrun by development.

And despite that clear assertion, county officials have allowed an estimated 4,000 building permits to be authorized. The county's refusal to uphold the will of the people led directly to a contravention of the voters' trust.

The rallying cry against SGI has been property rights. Yet property rights aren't absolute, and there is plenty of precedent that growth can be managed and controlled for the benefit of all residents. Carson City has had a building-permit cap in place for years, and the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency imposed a moratorium (upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court) while it figured out how to regulate construction.

The argument that SGI somehow inhibits construction of affordable housing in Douglas County is laughable, as if county officials have been straining mightily to meet that need.

Stop fighting SGI. Start figuring out how to implement it. You've had three years, and all you've done so far is lose in court.